Windows: With Aero, Microsoft added a nifty magnifier tool to Windows 7 that enables you to zoom in—regardless of the application—on the fine details on the screen. For faster zooming, here are some keyboard shortcuts.

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To quickly zoom in to any part of your screen, hit the Windows key and +. By default, the Magnifier will zoom in 100% increments, but you can change this in the tool settings. Hold down the Windows and - keys at the same time to zoom back out.

Update: as some commenters pointed out, although Vista has the Magnifier tool, the full screen zoom doesn't work the same way as it does for Windows 7.

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Other quick keyboard shortcuts, once you have the Magnifier tool up, include:

CTRL + ALT + L to bring up the lens display view

CTRL + ALT + D to dock the magnification area.

CTRL + ALT + F brings you back to the full screen mode.

In some applications, such as your web browser and Photoshop, you can use CTRL + and CTRL - instead to zoom in. But if you ever want to get a closer look at something in Windows 7 and the CTRL + shortcut doesn't do anything for you, try using the Windows key instead of the CTRL key.

Shortcut of the Day highlights a great shortcut on various platforms from the desktop to mobile devices to the web. You can find more shortcuts here.

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Have a Windows or other shortcut to share? Tell us about it in the comments or send an email to tips@lifehacker.com.

You can contact or follow Melanie Pinola, the author of this post, on Twitter.